Accused of being “a conduit for disinformation campaigns led by the Russian authorities” to “destabilize public order” in France, pro-Russian columnist Xenia Fedorova was given a ministerial expulsion order on Wednesday, a decision that she will contest.
His employers Canal+ and Lagardère denounced in a press release “a particularly serious attack on freedom of expression”.
“Xenia Fedorova is a journalist,” also supported her lawyer, Me Emmanuel Piwnica. She will “immediately file an appeal” against the expulsion order, he announced to AFP.
Since the notification of this document, Xenia Federova has been under house arrest and must report to the police station every day, a source close to the case told AFP. She can therefore no longer work normally.
Former boss of the Russian channel RT in France, banned in the EU since March 2022 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Xenia Fedorova regularly defends the Kremlin’s positions in the media in the fold of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
She appears in particular on CNews and Europe 1 and writes a column in the weekly JDNews.
The columnist was given a ministerial expulsion order on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry told AFP, confirming information from the daily Liberation.
“His behavior undermines the fundamental interests of the State”, and his presence on French territory “for this reason constitutes a particularly serious and current threat to public order”, according to the daily, which cites the ministerial decree.
“Narratives”
“By deploying her narratives”, the columnist “acts as a relay for the disinformation campaigns piloted by the Russian authorities” with the aim of “destabilizing public order” in France, it is added.
It “contributes to the dissemination of a discourse of disinformation and destabilization”, “aimed at manipulating public opinion”, “at undermining the confidence of European citizens and in particular French citizens in their institutions”, according to the ministerial decree, still cited by Libération.
Elsewhere in Europe, Xenia Fedorova is banned from entering Germany, a source close to the matter told AFP.
A lively controversy was triggered at the end of May after the revelation of the extension in 2024 for ten years of the residence permit of the 45-year-old Russian and an article in Le Monde which attributed her growing influence over Vincent Bolloré.
“There are titles which are automatically renewed for foreigners who have been in a legal situation for several years and who meet conditions. He gets rid of it every day,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez then explained, assuring that there had been no “intervention” from the government for this extension.
« Propagandists » you Kremlin
The French government and President Emmanuel Macron have called Xenia Fedorova a Kremlin “propagandist”. MEPs from the centrist Renew group called on the European Union to take sanctions against her, describing her as a “notorious Russian propagandist”, guilty, according to them, of spreading “grossly manipulative narratives about the war in Ukraine and against the EU”.
Her public interventions are marked by recurring theses: according to her, “it is the West which has decided to prolong” the war in Ukraine and Europe is tempted to “go to war against Russia”.
Certain comments made on CNews prompted several referrals to the media regulatory authority, which are currently being examined.
Its growing place in the media in the Bolloré sphere has given rise to fears of manipulation of the public debate, particularly during the campaign for the presidential election in 2027.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had estimated in this regard that there would be “a political fight to be waged” which risks gaining “intensity”, but he distinguished the “propaganda” of this pro-Russian columnist from interference.
However, he mentioned a “red line” to the extension of her residence permit, which is not to “harm the fundamental interests of the Nation”, and hoped that a “contradiction” could be brought to her when she speaks publicly.
The columnist was able to count on the support of the leaders of the Bolloré galaxy, who invoked freedom of expression and pluralism of opinions.
